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Videos and Trainings

Family-Run Organization Summit

The Family Cafe hosted a Family-Run Organization Summit in conjunction with The 19th Annual Family Cafe. It brought together leaders of family-run organizations to explore, strengthen and pursue a unified voice to better serve Florida’s families, youth and children.

Florida’s family-run organizations continue to develop, grow, and provide services to our families, youth and children. Despite their progress, family-runs have not yet collaborated towards articulating a joint vision that would serve to unify and empower their collective voice. Consequently, we have not seized the opportunity to benefit from a unified, empowered voice that can be more effective at contributing to policy formation, service design, and funding allocation at the statewide level.

Trauma and Individuals with Disabilities

This presentation offers a brief overview of trauma and why everyone should be aware of its importance: What is trauma and what are some possible causes of trauma; The importance of taking trauma into consideration in all aspects of life and care; The potential effects of trauma; Potential causes and the impact of trauma, specifically on individuals with disabilities; Available therapies for trauma; and What is trauma-informed care? Available resources related to trauma-informed are provided.

Behavioral Health Services within the Community and School

In this session from The 19th Annual Family Cafe, Disability Rights Florida offers instruction on how to navigate and obtain behavioral health services in the community and in schools. The presentation focuses on wraparound services, community based services, accessing services in the school setting, and trauma informed care. The main objective is to provide the essential tools to advocate for needed behavioral health services.

Navigating the Paperwork Maze

In this session from The 19th Annual Family Cafe, the presenters take participants on a journey exploring resources and tools included in a binder that will untangle the paperwork maze. Parents create a resource binder that contains a collection of educationally relevant documentation and activities that can assist parents in maintaining records and facilitate a greater sense of partnership between schools and home. Parents of students with disabilities at all grade levels learn how to create a binder that includes all tools necessary to organize, guide, and empower them to actively engage in the planning of their child’s educational career.

If you’re mad as hell at the political process and don’t want to take it anymore, you’re not alone. In 2015, a Pew Charitable Trusts survey found that 74 percent of Americans believed that most elected officials didn’t care what people like them thought. In the 2016 presidential election, people vented those frustrations with their votes. The November results confirmed that Americans are tired of politics as usual.

While it is not surprising that Americans would channel their frustrations into contenders pledging to end business as usual, you don’t have to pin your hopes for change on candidates. Nor should you throw in the towel on democracy, and simply assume that youcan’t fight City Hall. In America, the Owner’s Manual: You Can Fight City Hall – and Win, former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham and attorney Chris Hand show us how to discover, build, and flex our citizenship muscles. In their step-by-step guide, Graham and Hand empower Americans to become change agents for the betterment of their communities.

Do you want to be a participant, rather than a spectator, in the arena of democracy? Is your goal to preserve health care options? Persuade your local government to improve access for people with disabilities? Better advocate for families? Then please join Graham and Hand for a conversation about America, the Owner’s Manual that will give you the confidence that you can make governments work for you, not the other way around. As Graham and Hand write,citizens “do have a say about what the government does—if they learn, master, and practice the skills of effective citizenship.”